Plot:Festivals are always fun. Joy and excitement, fun and games, but like the old saying goes. It’s all fun and games until everything burns to the ground. Or.. something like that. So, with a bunch of drunks, and no reining their games in, what happens when the fun turns to disater, as they light the village on fire?

Setting:A small out of the way village, during a festival honoring the village’s founder. The village is full of three things at this late hour of 11pm. Drunks, Beer, and Lite lamps. So in the center town, the party is just starting to cool off and slow down, and some of the people are starting to set off for home.--

‘Humans are gross, don’t you think Grafe?’

The soft purring voice in the falcon’s head turned his attention to the sharp toothed girl, who’s arm he was sitting on.

‘They are interesting to me,’ Grafe said turning back to them. ‘Can we go closer and see what they are doing? Please, Mira?’

A sigh from the girl. ‘I suppose.’ The pair moved towards the drunken men and the few women still around. A few men looked over at the girl with the emeral green eyes, and as she smiled a fang toothed smile at them, they were too drunk to notice, and would end up calling over to her.

“Hey girly, why not come on over here and see me?” Or, “Hey were you going, you don’t want to spend some time with me?” Or better yet, some tried pick up lines. “Did it hurt when you fell from heaven? Because you look like an angel.” This would result in her becoming a little more disgusted with the ways of humans.

Grafe enjoyed the closer view, but he knew this was making Mira unconfortable. ‘Why not be in your natural form?’ he asked, turning his head back towards Mira.

‘I don’t want the attention in that form,’ she said calmly. Her eyes scouting the men waiting for one to go too far. Sadly, it didn’t take too long for that to happen.

The man stepped infront of Mira, and Grafe, and spoke in a very slurred voice something Mira only picked up a few words of, but in his head, she got exactly what he said.

The city was a place that held for him nothing but mixed feelings. He liked the hustle and bustle of city life, the rhythm of people as they went about their daily activities. However, it was this mass of people that also set him on edge, eyes scanning every nook and corner of the streets that he walked through, drinking in every detail that he saw. It was not because he was afraid of being hunted or rooted out by some mysterious killer. No, it was because he was that person that he kept so alert.

It had been weeks since the last whisperings had occurred, and he was starting to be put on edge by their silence. He should have been glad, he knew. He should have been tempted to hope that for some inexplicable reason, the souls of the women that possessed him had decided that enough was enough, and it was time to move on. But he knew no hope, and could barely remember a time when he had dared to possess such a fleeting emotion. Hope had been replaced by a steadily growing restlessness inside him, and every time he turned a corner, he expected to see someone just standing there, the simple essence of their being sending the voices in his head into a clamor of blood lust… And finally, that moment came.

The man stumbled out of a bar just ahead of him, obviously drunk by the way that he swayed back an forth, his balance unsteady. The man certainly wasn’t pretty in the face, having been in plenty of bar fights and had the marks to prove it. He had a beer belly and was build more or less like a bull, with broad shoulders and thick about the waist and legs. Any normal man simply would step out of the staggering drunk’s way, not willing to deal with the trouble that he would probably cause.

However, Van was not a normal man. Instead of simply turning the other way, he followed the man, the voices in his head having woken with his appearance. Most of them calmed down after his initial entrance, whispering among themselves, just quiet enough that their host could not make out the words. However, one remained louder than the rest, her voice on the verge of breaking with tears. “Stab him! Kill him! Slit his throat! Beat him! Do not let him get away!” She chanted, over and over again, her warbling voice fading in and out of hearing range.

Long used to the voices, Van simply ignored the specifics of her request, his left hand dropping to the hilt of his sword to reassure the woman that her vengeance would be exacted. He voice was the most commonly heard among all of the ones that possessed him, and he knew that any form of death for her chosen victim really was enough to satisfy her. She’d been killed long ago by a huge man, reeking of alcohol, and any man stumbling out of a bar that was slightly larger than the norm was at risk of her reaction. Needless to say, Van saw plenty of men that fit the description, and was used to dealing with their kind. He would simply follow the man to wherever he happened to pass out for the night and slit his throat in the darkness of the night. Clean and quick, and most importantly, it settled the voices once more.

For his apparent youth, the straw-haired man was in reality quite the weapons master, and the sword that he carried at his side was but one of a dozen weapons that he was skilled with. Being that the sword was easiest to get a hold of and lest conspicuous, it was his preferred weapon. However, he was acquainted with lance and axe and dagger, and had used all three within the past month on various missions to fulfill the requests of the women who nagged at him for blood.

As he was contemplating these things, he noted with a certain curiosity that the man he had been following had stumbled upon a girl walking through the streets, a hunting bird of some sort or another perched on her shoulder. Seeing the drunken man approach her directly, all the voices in his head suddenly screamed their abjection, knowing quite well where these sorts of situations lead. Well, he’d have to abandon the stealthy approach to murder this time around. It seemed that there was a general consensus among the voices that needed him to die immediately.

For now though, he would simply wait for the situation to explode. Hopefully, that wouldn’t take long. After all, he needed a legitimate reason to commit murder in broad view of everyone, even if they were all drunk.

The man was half surprised by the sudden viciousness of the seemingly 16 year old. And as he went to stagger back a step, he drew her with him, almost knocking them both over, if she hadn’t caught herself, and spun him around as he tumbled to the ground. Her eyes grew fiery and malicious.

‘Grafe, away for a moment, I don’t want you getting hurt.’

The falcon gave her a long look before fluttering off to land on the roof above; his piercing eyes following her every movement.

With Grafe out of the way, her emerald eyes fixed on the man’s stupid face, her mind had no trouble locking into his. Her purr of a voice a hiss against his silent stupidity, and it rang in his ears filling his head with a throbbing.

“Wha? Wha you do'n? stp!”

Her eyes kept fixed on his head, but her hiss in his head only made his grip tighten on her arm, and his strength caught her slightly off guard, and she bit her lip from biting his hand and perhaps causing more damage than was necessary.

‘Let go of me.’ Her hissed voice spoke in his head. ‘Let Go NOW!’ The last part filled his ears, and they rang when it cut off.

Grafe squawked again, fluttering some more, and switching from foot to foot above the man. With the combined noise of his ears ringing, and the bird, and his head throbbing, he was stunned, and confused. He was drunk, and that wasn’t helping. Finally Mira knew this wasn’t going to help. The voice in the head trick wasn’t going to work if the man was so intoxicated he probably wouldn’t even know where he lived. She sighed and reverted to speaking. Something she loathed in all aspects of the motion.

“Sir, I’m warning you now, if you don’t let go, you won’t like it, and I’m not stopping Grafe up there was coming down here and pecking your eyes out.”

Her voice was soft, and still sounded much like a purr, but it had a hard malicious edge to it. The man looked at her, his grip loosened, but he pulled her down to the ground as he attempted to get up. She bared her fangs at him again, but he only smiles, still pleased he was in control.

“Relly?”

Her eyes narrowed, and she bit into his hand, holding tight as he wound back to punch her away from him, his voice rose into a bellow of pain and shock at how sharp her fangs were.

"I think that the situation has gotten enough out of control..." Van muttered to himself, drawing his sword in a smooth practiced motion that told of thousands of repeated moves, and he stepped forward, attempting to throw a concerned mask on. In truth, he felt the rush of adrenalin as he imagined the man's stunned pained face when he realized he was dying, and that prospect excited him, the voices in his head cooing their pleasure as they too saw the man's impending death.

When his fist rose to punch the girl, they screamed in dismay and outrage, speeding Van's calm steps so that he could reach them in time, sword flashing dully in the half-light as he brought it down on the man, making a last minuet correction so that the razor sharp edge found it's way to his wrist, shearing through the cartilage there like butter, a wave of blood following the severed limb, coating the man's raised arm quickly. He followed through his punching movement, unaware of the pain until the severed stump flashed before his eyes. He screamed then, hardly able to believe that he was now one hand short, and the arching fiery pain that came along with it. He tried to push the cat girl off of him, instinctively trying to stop the bleeding from his severed wrist, the blood pumping out with every beat of his frantically racing heart.

Van stood for a second, the normal calm blue flashing red as the voices rebelled in the blood shed, laughing at the man's plight before urging Van to finish him off, to end his pitiful screaming. He was only too happy to comply.

The man's position on the ground made it awkward to place a killing blow, coupled with the fact that the girl was still on him. However, he was confident in his abilities to kill the man and miss the girl, and so were the voices. Their confidence was not misplaced. He rose his sword high, using the full extent of his reach and height to plunge the blade straight down into the hollow next to his neck, missing his collar bone by a hair's breadth and sinking deep through the man's body, shearing through soft organs and cutting veins with no resistance until the blade was buried to the hilt.

The drunk could not make a noise, the blade having cut through his lung. He could only stare, his arm no longer pumping blood; the arteries to that side of his body had been severed in the killing stroke, it was simply leaking now. Then, his eyes rolled up and his head lolled back, his whole body going limp and held more or less upright by Van's sword.

The voices in his head crowed their triumph, and Van felt their compulsion on him begin to fade as they settled down in the back of his mind to wait for another victim to cross their path.

He heaved on the sword, pulling it free of the man's body, letting it fall to the ground where his blood began to steadily pool around him. He cast his gaze to the girl, a small humorless smile touching his lips. "You're welcome."

Mira let go as the man’s scream stopped. Fangs glittered in blood, and she spat it out of her mouth. She stared at the drunken man, her eyes on his hand for a moment, then at the dead man’s shell, with the missing hand drawing her attention too. It wasn’t until the other man spoke that she really cared to look at him. She knew he had been the one to kill the man and yet she was more curious of the feeling of her mind still connected to the shell of the man. She though into his head for a second, asking him to raise his hand. His shell lifted his hand just a few inches before she was satisfied, and slightly afraid of that power.

She turned towards the man with the sword, looking him up and down before getting up herself. He was older, looking, but there was something about him. Something about him that sparked her interest a little more. She pushed her mind into his opening up the link she was so used to, but didn’t say anything just yet. Her mind pushed out, hitting something that blocked her from going farther. Either he knew how to set up a mind block, or she was right, there was something off.

Sighing, she retreated her mind completely out of his and looked at him, her cat’s eyes watching for a moment longer before speaking, now that she’d done it once already here.

“You want a prize for killing him? Come now, I thank you sure, but really so far? You’re easy to read, and don’t seem the type, but I’m not one to much care into other people’s lives.”

Without looking towards Grafe, or making any movement at all, the falcon came down to join her on her shoulder. Of course, she had told him to, but in the mind link they shared.

‘Still,’ Grafe said, ‘he did sort of save your life, even though you could have taken him if you went natural.

‘Yeah, that would have gone over great too,’ Mira said with humor in her voice. ‘Town’s people run a giant wolf cat that turns into a human! I can see it now Grafe.’

‘Just tell him I thank him too?’

‘Do it yourself.’

Mira opened up the link into the man’s head, and as she pulled out, she put Grafe in. The falcon turned to face the man his sharp eyes watching the hand as he spoke. ‘Thank you, for helping Mira, even if she won’t admit she needed it.’

The falcon was pleased now and moved closer to Mira who took that as he was done and shut the link. ‘Now what’s he going to do? Those people don’t look too happy at what he did.’

Van knelt next to the body, wiping his sword on his shirt with zero regard to the other who stood around the body of the fallen man with a mixture of curiosity and horror. He was quite used to such looks, and knew that as long as he got out quickly, there would be no need to fight his way out of an angry mob. The abruptness with which he had killed the man was certainly playing to his favor.

What he wasn't used to, however, was the girl speaking back to him calmly. Or rather, in an annoyed fashion. He usually got a mix of two responses from women who he had saved as a byproduct of killing his man. The first was the screaming, the pleading for life. They either seemed to be horrified at the blood and death, or were thinking that for some insane reason he would kill the would-be attacker only so that he could have the pleasure of killing the woman he was in the process of attacking too. The second normal reaction was the thanking and tears.

He stood, one eyebrow raised in curiosity. He felt something brush against his mind, like the beginning of the whispers. But the presence was different, it wasn't full of hate and blood lust. The Voices heard it too, and were stirred from their slumber, their curiosity piqued. They hadn't met a mind speaker before. He sheathed his sword, smoothly, looking around at the men who were beginning to gather a little more tightly now that the dangerous weapon was in it's sheath. "Reward? No, my lady. It is reward enough for me to see you unharmed. Whether you minded if he died in the process of saving you is your own matter." He smiled briefly, again that humorless smile that touched his face but didn't reach his eyes. Again, she had surprised him. He hadn't had anybody blatantly claim that they didn't care if their assaulter was killed one way or another. Again, he felt that brushing of minds, another one this time. How many mind speakers were there in this town? The voices rose up this time, chattering amongst themselves, mostly curious, but some were starting to get angry with the intrusions. Over the garbled noise, he could only hear parts of what the hawk was saying, and only then enough to discern that the speaker was male.

Male?

The voices went into a flurry at that point, and Van's head snapped up and around, looking for someone who was obviously trying to talk to him. He only noticed that the bird's eyes were fixed on him, as if trying to gain his attention. Well, that was an odd thought, wasn't it? After all, birds, even the reasonably intelligent hunting kind, couldn't speak. Shaking off the momentary confusion, he allowed himself a small bow toward the girl. "Now if you'll excuse me, I believe that I need to make a hasty retreat."

Mira merely shrugged, and was Grafe turned his attention to the girl, they started to walk away. Mira glanced behind her once towards the male, before pushing through a few men who were still shocked at what happened, and entering a dark ally.

‘What are you thinking?’ Grafe asked as he felt the link set back up, and as Mira checked the ally for anyone close enough to see her.

‘Nothing,’ she said innocently enough, but Grafe wasn’t going to believe her, and this was reinforced as he jumped off her shoulder and landed on the ground, his talons scratching the pavement with a soft sound. ‘Fine,’ she said looking down at him. ‘I want to follow him, something’s off, and you can’t tell me you didn’t feel it when I let you in there.’

Grafe was silent for a moment as he thought back. ‘There was something else in his head?’ he guessed. He looked back over at Mira, who now was on all fours, her emerald green eyes watching Grafe, and her front fangs hanging over her muzzle. Her pitch black fur, blended with the dark of the ally, and only the faint glow on her white markings, showed Grafe exactly where she was.

‘Correct,’ she purred, ‘but I’m not sure what was in there, and I think it’s a little dangerous to speak into his mind, or go into his mind for that matter, anymore.’

Grafe nodded and springing lightly into the air, he landed on the werecat’s head, she being too small to still sit on her shoulder. He inched down towards her neck, and the two left the ally, looking around for the male. With their luck and vantage point, they couldn’t tell if he was still in the center by the dead man, but a few of the drunken men had walked towards their dead friend.

Mira simply looked away from them, shaking her head lightly, before using her senses to find the man. She searched through people’s minds, hoping to follow a trail of people who had just seen him, and also using Grafe’s eyes, to pick out him in the darkness. If all else failed, the falcon could simply fly up and find him, but for now, they were both content to search on the ground, by foot.

It was probably good that they had realized something was wrong with him, for if either of them attempted to enter his mind again, they would be met with the fury of the voices. Mira probably would simply be rebuffed from his mind, but Grafe, as a male entity and despite the fact that he was not humanoid in any sense of the word, would have been met with a decidedly more violent reaction. He left the ring of on-lookers, brushing past a few of the drunks that had sobered up considerably upon seeing the body lying in the street in a pool of blood.

He didn't need to flee to the city... officers who inspected murders often couldn't make much of the garbled accounts of stories from drunks. No, he just needed to make it back to the inn that he'd booked the night at. Luckily, he had managed to keep from getting spattered with blood, which was a nice change of pace. It would be easier to sneak up to his room when people weren't questioning what he'd just been doing.

He took a route down a relatively deserted alley way, passing by the occasional beggar or group of people when his alley ran into a more traveled road. No one spared him much of a thought... after all, word of the murder four streets over hadn't spread just yet. He was looking forward to getting a good night's rest, and knowing that he wouldn't have to wake up in the morning and wash the blood out of his clothing was an even more enlightening thought. His pace was unhurried, and the voices in his head were starting to calm down now, the novelty of not being the only one's in Van's head quickly being put aside for the moment.

Mira ducked around the circle a few times, weaving in and out of people’s feet and legs. A few children, sleeping on their mother’s shoulders, opened their sleepy little eyes, feeling the soft brush against their minds, and smiled sleepily at the werecat, seeing in her, what only little children minds could. Not seeing a girl if she had been in that form, not seeing a sharp toothed wolf if she had been in that form, and of course not seeing a sharp toothed cat either, but seeing a true essence that only children could see. What it was that children saw in her, Mira wouldn’t know, for she refused to venture that far into a child’s head. She wouldn’t know if her small intrusions caused any problems anyways.

Finding a still stunned man’s man she found the image of the man leaving down the dark alley behind the man. Mira grinned and headed down that ally while Grafe held on tight to her. He knew better than to say anything while she was tracking. Her full concentration had to be on it. Her mind was slipping from head to head, following the faint images of the man who passed by the people. And her senses where full on the man’s scent. She turned out of the alley, finding a well traveled road. Her mind skipped faster and farther, and she followed the general direction when his scent cut off, or she lost it.

Following the road she headed unknowingly towards an Inn. Someplace where she had hardly ever been in, or really seen much of. She followed the road, glancing at he places she passed. She tended to stay away from very populated areas, and stick closer to shadowed places where people couldn’t really notice her. A werecat with a falcon on her back was drawing a bit too much attention for her likeing, and she had to make a swift turn to follow alleys instead of the main road, so that they weren’t stopped or something on their way. It would be harder following him now, but not impossible.

Not knowing that he was being followed, Van calmly walked into the wider, brightly lit cobbled street that the inn sat on. This late at night, the number of people enjoying the festivities just down the road were starting to dwindle, the numbers of families caught out now practically zero. No one paid him much mind as he blended in with the sparse traffic, making his way through to the inn door.

It was a cheery, warm inn, the kind that one would expect to be placed on the main road. The tap room on the bottom floor was clean and neat, with a large fire burning in the grate off on the left side, the chimney nearly always belching out gray wood smoke. The right side of the room was dominated by a long bar, behind which were the kitchens. Waitresses appeared and then disappeared through the swinging doors, carrying plates of food with them as they went, and grabbing mugs of beer or other spirits set out for them upon request. Spread out in the room between were tables at which many a patron had sat. A few of the chairs were mismatched; even a nice establishment like this couldn't prevent the occasional rowdy fist fight that broke out when men had too much to drink and a troubled mind. For now, the crowd that gathered seemed relatively mellow, boisterous laughter echoing from around the room. Everyone here was in a light mood, completely unaware that there was a figurative wolf in their midst.

But that was okay with Van. The illusion of normalcy was one that he often strove for, and in a setting like this, it was an illusion that was easily maintained. Straight ahead, there were stairs and a hallway that both lead to rooms to rent out for the night. Having already deposited the money needed, he dug around in his pockets for the key and headed up the stairs. The little one-man bedroom was located directly after the stairs, on the corner of the building. He had requested this room, much to the inn keeper's surprise. Not many people wanted the room right next to the stairs, seeing as it was made of wood and squeaked terribly when people walked up it. However, he wasn't about to turn down someone who was willing to take a traditionally hard room to fill, and let the man have it. In fact, he chose it for that very reason; bitter experience had taught Van to always be ready for an attack. If the local garrison around here somehow found out about his recent doings, he would hear them and have time to escape out the window. It was a bit of a drop, him being on the second floor, but he'd made such a leap before, and had little misgivings about doing it again.

Locking the door behind himself, he began unbuckling his sword belt, leaving the weapon close by before settling down for the night. Since he was on the corner, he had two windows to look through, one that looked out into an alley way, and the other that commanded a view of the main road. He looked out this one now, simply just watching as the late nighters went about their business.

Mira sighed as she padded the alleys. She was so close, she knew it. Now was the hard part, which might not be too hard if the man hadn’t guessed what she was yet. Perhaps he wouldn’t know who she was if she wasn’t in her human form. Still, she wasn’t entirly sure why she was so interested in this human. She stopped just before the nicely done cobble stone street. Why was she so interested in this human? Was it was the block? She was interested in why that was there. It was hidding something, whatever it was, and whatever it was hiding made Mira’s curiousity spark greatly. She’d never run into a problem withsearching through minds, but… that couldn’t be it. She knew that it would be risky to try to go back into the man’s head. After all, she didn’t what the block was… and It might follow her back into her own head. So… was it something else?

‘Mira? Should I fly up to find him ? So we don’t draw so much attention to ourselves?’Grafe’s voice drew Mira out of her thoughts. She thought about was he said for s second, her black fur raised by the thought of what she’d been about to think, and her unblinking eyes had been glued onto the streat. Now she peeled them away from watching the human walking bay, and from her own head which was so much more complicated than a humans it seemed.

‘Um, Yeah, but don’t got far.’ She said turning to look at her feathered friend. Grafe nodded and fluttering his wings, the young falcon took to the air, higher until he was out of the alley, then off out of site. Through his eyes Mira would be adle to see what he saw from the air, and had she not been tracking this man, she would have taken the time to do so.

Back to her search, the Werecat padded into the streat, her paws silent on the cobble stone, and her eyes looking forwards without seeing. Her mind link contiued to skip about from person to person as she padded down the cobble. It seemed that her strannge helper had headed into an Inn. Mira looked around, pausing in the middle of the streat, she licked her paw while getting directions out of one man’s mind. It wasn’t too hard. The man seemed to be bunking there aswell, and wasn’t she lucky, he was heading there right this minute.

‘Mira, I found the Inn. I’ll meet you there,’ Grafe’s voice spoke in her head after she transferred her thoughts to him.

‘Perfect,’ she thought back to him. ‘I got someone leading me there, be there in a second.’

Grafe dove towards the buildings, folding his wings as he made a streamline down. Once he was closer, he opened them again, glidding up towards the roofs again, and perched on the edge of the roof, unknowingly just to the left of Van’s window. He could see everything on the stream below from here, and turning his head he could see Mira coming down the streat, silently padding after the man unknowingly leading her.

Mira picked her way through the people, her tail trailing out behind her, or following her weaving motions. Her eyes opened, and truly seeing this time. She glued them onto the man that she was following, and when she got closer to the Inn, she headed towards the door. Picking up the pase so a to not get stepped on, especially by anyone drunk, she slipped into the doors just as someone left and was greeted by Grafe’s voice.

He watched the street for a few more moments, the barest hint of a smile creeping onto his face. He loved the city and all of it's life. Van was about to turn from the window and resume getting ready to tuck in for the night, when he did a classic double take, a dark form moving among the people catching his eyes. Upon further inspection, he saw that it was merely an alley cat, walking among the people on the street. At first, he thought it a strange sight; weren't they typical alley cats scared of people? Unless they were hungry, of course. He shrugged off the thought easily, deeming it none of his concern. Perhaps it was someone's pet out for a late night walk. It was certainly possible.

Turning from the window, he removed his boots and fished the key to his room back out of his pocket where he'd automatically put it, and placed it on the small wooden stand next to his bed. Downstairs, he heard a roar of laughter as someone told an incredibly amusing joke of some kind or another, and shook his head. Drunks could be so noisy...

There was a candle next to his bed, but he hadn't lit it when he came in, despite the matches lying next to it. It was light enough outside that he could do just fine without them for the short task of getting undressed for bed. Folding back the covers, and slipped underneath them, staring blankly at the ceiling, letting his mind go blank in preparation for sleep.

Mira padded silently towards a corner. The loud noise of the humans made her lips curl into a snarl, but she relaxed quickly. She didn’t need to blow her cover, not yet. Picking the shadowy corner, her night black fur blended well, and despite the faint white markings that could be made out, and her eyes, she did a good job of not being noticeable. Now that hiding was out of the way, it was time to get down to business. She needed to figure out where the man had gone to, and what room he was in. She also needed a reason to be following him, but that would have to come later. She didn’t know if ‘pets’ were allowed in this Inn, and she didn’t need to be kicked out.

Her mind pushed out, and into the Inn keeper’s head. Despite herself, Mira was slightly surprised what she found. This man had a very… organized… head. It was easy to move through his thoughts and memories. Very easy, almost… too easy. She found what she wanted quickly. Quicker time than she had ever made. She starting sorting through who was located were. A man by the name of Mike was in the last room of the hall, another, a family located across from his. Had to go get the rest of their due at the end of the week. She pushed through more, looking at the mental pictures of each person, searching… searching… Ah!

There he was. She didn’t even bother looking at the name, that would be an inconvenience if she knew it. After all, she might need to use that as a reason to track him down. She got the floor he was on, slightly surprised it was a small Inn in story wise, and pushed out of the corner, silently and swiftly following the wall to a point where she could cross to the stairs unnoticed. She paused by the stair case down that lead to food, and the noisy humans. She peered down at them, watching them eat like animals and rip at what they were eating with their teeth. Mira shivered and ran passed the stair case down to the one that lead up. She silently jumped from step to step, her paws noiseless on the old wood, except perhaps a light creek.

Making it to the top, she padded towards the door noticing how weird of a place to want to room. That was one thing the keeper remembered well, he’d asked for this room. Odd… Mira made it to the door and sighing, she did the only thing she could in this form. She pawed at the door… and waited hoping he’d come and open it…

Vann had begun to drift off to sleep, the normal ebb and flow of conversation going on down stairs a reassurance to him in the darkness of the night. It was only if they all suddenly became very quiet that he would begin to be worried.

He had nearly dropped off to sleep when he heard an anomaly in the normal noises of your typical tavern. It was a soft sound at his door, just barely within hearing. Roused from his near-sleeping state and curious, he got out of bed slowly, grabbing his sword, though he kept it in the sheath, listening for that sound again. Perhaps he'd been mistaken? Maybe he was just hearing things... Or maybe someone was trying to break into his room, thinking the occupant sound asleep? Whatever the cause for that noise, he felt that it would only be appropriate to find out what was causing it.

Walking to the door and unsticking the lock that held it shut, he swung it open, half expecting to see some sort of street trash crouched there with a lock pick in hand. He didn't see a person in the hallway, though, and was momentarily confused. Upon looking around and down, he spotted the furred mass sitting on the floor, and raised an eyebrow in curiosity. A cat? What was a cat doing in the hall? Was it the owner's? Looking up and down the hallway again, he saw no one, and concluded that it must have belonged to someone downstairs or something, not recognizing the creature for the cat that he'd seen wandering the street outside but only moments before.

"What's the matter cat?" He asked, crouching down and reaching out a hand to pet the feline, assuming that the creature was like any other cat. He noted that it seemed to have much larger teeth than the norm, but he was no cat expert, and thought that perhaps this was simply a trait of some breed that he had yet to come across in his travels. "Did you loose your owner?" He had no food in his room, so did not think that the cat could possibly be bugging him for that reason. Maybe it had just grown tired or gotten scared of all the noise downstairs and had come up to seek attention from a less drunk patron in the relative quite of the upstairs hallway. He hadn't quite got to wondering why it had picked his room just yet, the thought simply hadn't occurred to him.

Mira snickered to herself and sat down when the door flew open. ‘Jumpy much?’ she thought to herself. Looking around the room, she had no objection to him stroking her head, but she did find it slightly annoying. Sure she was a cat, and yes her human form was an unnatural form for her, but she was used to having to be in it, and humans didn’t stroke each other’s heads. Relaxing a bit she stood and turned in small circles under his hand, like she’d seen owned cats do with their owner.

When the man spoke, she turned her eyes to stare at him. Her tail twitched slightly and her ears perked forwards. ‘Owner?’ she thought unhappily. ‘Like I’d be owned. Not much I can do about it though, that’s what most humans ask when they see me…’ Shrugging it off she pulled the connection to Grafe back. Looking out through his eyes for a moment before pulling back and continuing to stare up at this man with her own.

“You know,” she started into Grafe’s head, “You’re literally right outside his window.” Amusement in her voice as she spoke into the falcon’s head.

Grafe shifted his weight from his perch outside. “Really? I didn’t even plan that.”

She laughed mentally and then twisting around Vann’s legs like she’d also seen owned cats do she pushed past him quickly, hoping not to give him a chance to catch her and keep her out. Looking around, she leapt up onto the window sill and turned to watch him some more.

“Hold on, I’m shutting you completely out for a moment…” she said back to Grafe. “I’ll be back though.”

He didn’t like not knowing what she had planned, but he decided he’d let her, after all what choice did he have? So she did it, and pushing up as many mental blocks as she could think to, she reached very slowly and very carefully into Vann’s head again, wondering what exactly she could find in there. She was careful not to be too much of a presence in there, if she was allowed, and simply made her push peaceful and willing to talk. Whatever was going on in his head was interesting to her, and she had learned by now to be careful and not to force. She’d only enter if they left her, and only see what they left her, if it was a they?

Blinking she glance around again. If this didn’t work she’d need a place to chance forms, and on the window was probably not the best place to do it. She settled for the closet or under the bed before turning her intelligent gaze back to Vann.

Training for priest-hood, Vann hadn't been able to own an animal. There was the typical stray that hung around the barn and caught mice, but no one in the monastery had necessarily owned the animal. Back when he was still with his family, however, they had owned several huge hunting dogs. In his heart, he was still a dog lover, but an four legged creature that wasn't trying to eat the renegade was one that he felt at ease around. A companion, even if it were non-sentient, was still a companion.

He grew a touch annoyed when the feline decided to run into his room instead of scampering off down the hall when it had gotten bored, as cats tended to do. "Now, I really can't have you in here." He muttered to the animal, walking forward and leaving the door open, just in case it decided to scurry away. He set his sword back down on the dresser, heading to the window where the creature had decided to make it's perch, unconsciously reaching out to pet it again. More to gain it's trust enough so that he could grab the thing and toss it out of his room so that he could get back to sleeping than of wanting to keep the creature around. Vann really wasn't they type to have a pet.

Before he could reach out and scratch it's ears again, he visibly stiffened, feeling something push against his mind. It was faint, like the soft caress of a feather over skin, but as used to he was to having things mucking about in his head, he knew the touch instantly as a mind probe of some sort or another. What's more, the presence was similar to the one that he had experienced earlier, and he began looking around for the source again. Someone out on the street peering intently into the window? No. There had been no one out in the hall way, either. His eyes fell to the cat, looking up at him with oddly intelligent eyes.

"It's you?" Vann asked, utterly bewildered at the possibility. The Voices were slow to react, having settled down waiting for the next unfortunate man to stray past. Once they realized that there was another something invading their space, they roused as one to confront the intruder. Recognizing the presence as female in nature, they held back their mental weapons, instead attempting to capture her and examine her. How did a mere cat possess the ability to see into minds? Why did it come and seek Vann out? What agenda did it have with their vessel?

And that, to The Voices, was the most worrisome question of all. They couldn't simply be exorcised from their host, as they were not demons in nature. Indeed, Vann had tried on a few occasions to attempt to be rid of The Voices through the church, obviously to no avail. No, they were free spiritual entities, and it would take nothing short of a superb physic to expel them. Fortunately for them, there were precious few of those lying about, and their host had long had the will to expel them himself beaten out of him. And now comes along this... cat thing, just when they had gotten comfortable in their host body, and the host likewise acclimated. They wanted to know more.

Mira watched his hand reaching for her, and she was half tempted to scratch it, or bite, or maybe move away from it. She was still deciding when he stopped. A small smile curled on her lips, as he looked around the room for whatever was pushing into his mind. Well, he wouldn’t find anyone but her, and after a moment, he realized this too. She cocked her head to one side still watching him.

In his mind, she pushed farther just enough to be a small distance from the outskirts. Enough to be able to speak and be heard. She wasn’t stupid enough to push her luck, and she didn’t want to get trapped in here. Although even touching Vann’s mind seemed like a bad idea. She could still easily get trapped in her. Taking a deep mental breath she decided that if they wouldn’t speak first she would, but then… Oh idea! She’d appear to not notice them at all; maybe they wouldn’t know she was the same person as before. After all, she hadn’t pushed this time.

Her voice was soft, with a purring slur to it. She had an air of mystery to her voice. Years of speaking in riddles made speaking in a normal matter a little difficult, but she did her best. She did her best to also keep an air of calm and peace in her voice. Perhaps, maybe, just maybe, whoever else was in this man’s head would speak first. It was a chance, but she wanted to believe this would work. She did her best to keep her knowledge of these others in her own head, back behind the mental blocks she’d set up. Years of practice had taught her many things, but never had she had to deal with something like this.

“Trouble is not something I wish to cause, but staying is not my intention either, just a chat, and a name is all I’m looking for.”

She regretted saying that, for now she was lying, and if these others didn’t buy her not knowing they were here, she was stuck in that lie anyways. But, if they did, she could act surprised by their appearance. She had practice with doing that when Grafe tried to surprise her. She was really hoping this would work, otherwise, she was in some trouble that she wasn’t sure how to get out of…

Vann could feel the entities inside his head preparing to pounce, and attempted to warn the cat of what he thought was her impending doom, but didn't get the chance.

The Voices seized upon her entity immediately after speaking, surrounding her with their pure numbers, picking and prodding at her consciousness none too gently, seeking for a way into her mind, to discover information. One in particular stood out among the rest. In life, she had been nothing short of a moral-less mercenary. After death, she had not changed much, but her personality had warped to one of a cold-blooded killer just in it for the money to a revenge-seeking narcissist that enjoyed the pain of others. There was no specified leader among the Voices that plagued Vann's head, but she was one of the more fearsome of the bunch, and generally got her way. She stepped forward now while her sister spirits were busy trying to reign in Mira.

"Nobody goes exploring in strange places without the thought of causing at least a little trouble, Mira." The woman said her presence seemingly very heavy and dark as compared to the others. Though she had no physical form, you could practically feel the smirk that was originating in her mind. "And you, my dear, at talking with a host of very curious ladies who want to know what you're doing in our vessel." She purred, her presence reaching out to touch Mira lightly, seeking information.

"We don't much appreciate intruders." A second said. Her voice was wispy and soft, where as the first was more dominating. But there was a cunning in her voice that betrayed her weak sound, and she too began to close in on Mira, reaching out and probing for information. "Who sent you? Did our host tell you to try and remove us?" She too smiled, her voice sarcastic, but there was a hard edge buried there. They didn't like the idea of leaving one bit, and an undercurrent of anger seethed just below the surface in all the spirits floating about.

As for poor Vann, his physical body was rendered practically helpless, nearly frozen but for his shallow breathing and blinking of his eyes. When The Voices had asked if he had sent for Mira to try and get rid of him, he felt a pain like talons gripping into his arms, holding him in place. It wasn't a pleasant sensation, and he knew very well that it was literally all in his head. That didn't stop him from involuntarily glancing at his arms to make sure that a dragon hadn't suddenly materalized out of the wall to grab him, though.

Mira pulled back slightly. She was completely surrounded, and she didn’t like this one bit. She hadn’t needed to fake the surprise at them being there, no, and she also didn’t need to fake the fear at their numbers. They had come too quickly for her to retreat out. She knew she still could, but she ran the risk of pulling some with her, not that she guessed that the man would mind. They were poking at her, and probing her, not that they’d find much but the brick wall of the mental shield she had put up. Still, she wanted nothing more than to mentally bite all their figures.

Shaking herself after being under that aura of dominance she spoke softly, and quickly, hoping to get this done so she could retreat out into the safety of her own mind. And to feel the warmth of Grafe’s again. She hadn’t expected this, not at all. She had felt small and weak under this one voice, but she still stood her ground, mentally. Her sharp eyes never left the man, physically.

“I go places of my own free will, and no trouble follows unless it is caused by those in suit.” Her riddled nature came out when she spoke to these ‘ladies’. “As for why I’m here, I was simple curious as to why this man helped me earlier. I felt you all here, but thoughts of darkness were not intentions to be found. You’re Vessel, though? Then why block so much? I want nothing but to talk, and without a form to do so, mental speech is all I can do.”

She reared at the touch of the dominating voice, but otherwise held still. She hated this, and really wished she’d followed her own advice from before. Her cat’s body shivered slightly from the concentration of keeping the mental blocks in place, and the man’s glance to his arm didn’t go unnoticed. Great now this was causing them both pain.

“I’m sorry to hear my entrance was something you don’t like, and if you let me go, I’ll go and stay away.” She spoke evenly, without a sign of weakness in her voice. “I wouldn’t think she’d want to hurt me when I plan to cause none to you. I was sent by no one, and why would I try to remove you? I have no business in your staying or going.”

She was talking quickly, but still showing nothing, and still not giving in on her shield. She needed to keep them out, her entire sanity depended on that, and although she’d never done it before, she was surprised by how easy it was to keep her mental shield from letting others in. It was almost too easy, but she couldn’t get cocky. She needed to stay focused. She would have closed her eyes, had she not feared being more drawn into the man’s body if she couldn’t see the world through her own eyes.

"Helped you?" The first voice asked. If she had a physical form, she would have arched a brow in curiosity. From the depths of Vann's mind, another one of the female entities rushed forward, her being more of one that spoke of a frantic personality. She would have been the wide-eyed type that was always spouting the latest gossip, whether true, fictional, or simply made up out of the insanity in her own head.

"I know what she is! This is no ordinary cat!" She practically screamed, having no interest in trying to invade Mira's head. She was obviously scared of the creature, and her mental voice trembled. "It's a were cat! Evil... EVIL creatures! Nasty blighters! They cause nothing but trouble! Trouble, I say!"

The first voice listened to the third babble on, her dark presence now tinged with annoyance at the sudden interruption. She shooed the crazy one away through sheer force of will-power, and considered Mira a little differently now. She expanded her reach to Vann's eyes, seeing all that he saw, and taking quick stock of the larger than normal cat that sat in front of their vassal, looking up at him with those abnormally intelligent eyes. She nodded to herself, and then returned her focus to Mira. "Hm... I think that I like your attitude... Mira." She tasted the name slowly, as if not believing that it was her real one. After all, the cat was putting up a pretty decent barrier against their light barrage against it that had continued all through the conversation. They could not be entirely certain that she wasn't lying with that barrier up, and who knew what other secrets the feline could be hiding? "We will let you speak to our host. But know this, and take my warning to heart. If you so much as think of trying to remove us... we will obliterate you. Is that understood?" The Voice's presence grew darker, if at all possible, and she let the force that her essence was exuding to expand, crushing in on Mira's defenses with her significant weight. The other Voices responded in kind, though they didn't lend near as much pure force as the first voice did, instead just jabbing at her mental defenses with quick sharp little attacks.

Then, all at once, it was gone. The voices were retreating back into the depths of Vann's mind to rest as they normally did, leaving the man free to do as he would. He looked physically exhausted, and heaved a deep sigh, sitting heavily on the bed as he did so. He looked up at the cat on his window, rubbing his temples as if he had a headache. "So, you wanted to talk?"

Mira stiffened. She shivered mentally. Why had she said that? It was the stupidest thing she’d let out of her mouth, and she had a feeling it was about to come back and bit her in the butt. She waited for the dominate voice to speak again, but a new voice filled the air in Vann’s head. Mira listened a little surprised that this voice had known what she was. After all, she’d never run into anything that did know what she was. Guess when dealing with odd entities, she should expect odd reasons.

She glowered though as the voice went on to call her evil, and her lips really drew back in her physical state as her anger in her mental one over lapsed. Mira waited though, her freedom, something she valued more than ever was at stake here. She waited while the dominate voice spoke again. Her fur stood on end while she did, and then… wait, had she heard that right?

“Th…Thank you?” her voice instead of being a statement turned into a question. She hadn’t expected to be complimented like that.Listening closely to the rest of her words Mira nodded mentally. She understood, but didn’t want to interrupt, and probably spoil everything with a sharp comment that would soon leave her ‘mouth,’ so to speak. She simply muttered “I understand,” and nothing more. When Vann’s voice spoke out loud, she nearly jumped off the sill and clung to the ceiling.

“What? Oh, yeah...” she said settling down as she probed just enough into his head so that he could hear her better. Thinking over her next words before speaking she said them with a spark of admiration and amusement, “How long you had that pack of hags in your head?” It was a small simple question, but she purposely trying to push her luck to see how far they would go. If they’d stay to their word as long as she did.She was interrupted though, her sharp hearing picking up the sound of the falcon outside. She shifted out of Vann’s head completely to tune into Grafe.

“What is it?” she asked making sure she put her mental shield down so he could enter and talk. “What’s got your feathers in a flutter?”Grafe’s words shocked her and she blinked in surprise her eyes turned to the window then back at Vann, they had to get out, and they had to get out now.

“They’re after us! And him! They’ve set the Inn on fire! Get out now Mira!”

Probably interrupting something, she didn't care, as she forced Grafe out and went back into Vann’s head, hardly remembering to put her shield up, but did in time, "We need to leave, and get out now. The Inn's on fire." To back this up, she sniffed and with her heightened senses she picked up the smoke from outside. The idiots! They were going to set the entire village in flames!

To her questions, the voices were silent. They stayed dormant in his head, content with themselves. Vann smiled vaguely, the expression never reaching his eyes. "For too long." He replied simply, hanging his head, trying to will away his headache. "I can't even recall how long ago I was burdened with them." He was a little surprised when he felt the cat's mental presence suddenly disappeared, and looked up, startled. "What is it?" He asked, but got no immediate response. The cat looked like it was concentrating on something, and wondered absently what it was concentrating on. When he was suddenly hit by the feline's voice again, he very nearly scrambled to his feet, so affected was he by her mental panic.

"Fire?" Vann asked, as if he didn't understand. Then, light dawning on his face, he grabbed his boots, a steady stream of cursing leaving his lips as he shoved the footwear on. He then went to the window, and slammed it open, looking out into the street. His curses were renewed upon seeing that the fire wasn't just on some house down the street, but was consuming the wood shingled roof of the inn. The fire hadn't spread much farther than the kitchens, but there was an angry mob out the front door, clamoring to get in while the residents, patrons, and employees attempted to get the hell out of the burning inn. Not having heard Grafe's earlier statement, he said aloud "I suppose that mob is coming for me, eh?" though the question was mostly rhetorical.

He turned and grabbed his sword and belt, closing the door by kicking it before strapping on his gear. "You might as well just leap out the window now." He said, not bothering to look at the feline. "Going out the front entrance without getting killed or trampled is going to be nigh impossible right about now." He grabbed the nightstand and dragged it to the door, propping it up against the knob so that getting in would be rather difficult. He didn't seem to care that all the contents on it's surface went scattering around the room.

"Unless you don't think you can make the jump, in which case, feel free to hitch a ride." Vann said, turning and heading for the window that he had just opened and setting one foot on the sill, readying himself for the drop. He turned his eyes to the cat, waiting for an answer, be it mental or physical and paused a moment, hearing the commotion downstairs escalate to a fevered pitch, people screaming and yelling and pounding around, breaking chairs and tables and glasses.

Mira was too intent on Grafe to really listen to the answer of her question. Her ears perked and twitched just slightly to show the strain of her concentration. It took her a moment to snap out of her concentration enough to listen to him as he spoke now. Her emerald green eyes turned from a blank look to back to starring at him. Her voice was calmer now, she hadn’t stayed in anyone’s head so long, and she’d never put so much emotion into her mental voice before. She’d never done it, and she’d never seen the reaction it caused, but now she knew to be more careful.

“Yes, to both.”

She froze for a second as she caught his train of thought. ‘The roof… is on fire? Where did Grafe go?’ She pulled out of Vann’s head again, panicked slightly. ‘What if he got hurt, what if someone found him and hurt him?’ Her panic turned to anger at that thought.

“Grafe?” she asked, finding him. He was circling in the street, trying to keep away from the heat, but still stay close enough to Mira.

“Yeah?” he asked swooping closer to the inn and then turning again to fly back. “You need to hurry, everything’s catching and the people can’t control it. The lot of drunks. They had no idea what they were getting into.”

Mira nodded mentally to him and pulled out. She went back into Vann’s head, and watched him. She twitched her tail and moved over on the sill a little as he kicked the door shut. Moving over better than jumping, she guessed. As he spoke of jumping out the window she looked out the open thing, looked out into the street, and guessed the distance. She was agile as a werecat, but she would have been feeling better had she been in human form.

As he was looking at her waiting for an answer she looked from him to outside again and then back to him. She sighed as best a cat could and then spoke back into his head as she leapt out the window, Grafe diving and gripping the scruff of her neck with his talons to slow her fall, to the edge of the sill below then onto the street and disappeared into the ally on the side of the inn.“I can make it,” she said with a laugh, meet you in a second.

As she reappeared from the alley, a human, with Grafe on her shoulder, she looked around. The fire was spreading a lot now, a lot of the houses around the village were caught, and the owners were either running around to throw water on it, or were trying to get their families out of the burning buildings. So much destruction and so much pain. Mira looked around disgusted. How could humanity be capable of this?

“We need to leave, leave, where too?” she asked looking around and hoping to spot him landing from the window above.

The sound of feet pounding up the stairs made Vann turn and look at his closed door, and all too quickly did he hear them pounding on the door, yelling for him to open up or they'd break the door down. It groaned under the heavy assault, and the chair that he had propped up to keep it shut wasn't going to keep for very long. He leapt from the window once he had seen the cat clear it, the sound of splintering wood following him out. He hit the cobbled street at a roll so that he didn't break his legs, coming up quickly to his feet and looking around for the cat, as well as to make sure he hadn't been spotted by the attackers.

He headed toward the alley where he had seen Mira run off, and was startled to see a girl standing in the alley way instead. It was the same one that he'd rescued from that drunk man! So this was... "Mira? You've got two forms, then?" He asked, looking at the bird on her shoulder, recognizing it from before as well. He shouldn't have been so surprised, the voices had basically told him that the cat was not simply what it appeared to be. But he was only human, and such things were still a little shock to a mere mortal such as himself.

He rubbed his face, realizing that he wouldn't be getting a whole lot of sleep tonight, and looked out at the street again where the inn was burning down. He had thought that he wasn't seen when he jumped from the window, but apparently someone had seen him walking into the alley. A few cries went up from within the crowd, as well as a good amount of pointing and the shouting doubled. "Well, looks like it's time to go." He muttered, turning down the alley way. "I suggest you follow if you don't want to be trampled." He said over his shoulder, and began running down the alley way. Now, he considered himself a pretty good hider, but angry mobs always had a way of increasing in number that made staying in the same town for too long more than a little awkward and extremely hard to hide. The power of a town to spread the identity of a criminal amongst themselves was a frightening thing indeed. It would be a while before he could come back.

Spotting Vann again she smiled. “Three actually,” she said, her fangs exposed by her drawn back lips. Her voice was harder as a human, not the soft tone of her ‘house cat’ form. His surprise amused him and she laughed softly. Grafe shifted his weight on her shoulder, his eyes following the fire on the roof of the Inn as it burned. With a sigh, Mira looked back at Vann.

“Grafe’s going to scout for us, which means, as you’ve noticed; I have to stay out of your head for a bit. Not that your, um, friends really mind so much. There’s more damage than we can guess, but Grafe can let us know if the way we go will lead to trouble.”

As she spoke, he smile vanished and her face was serious. Holding her arm up, the one where Grafe was perched, she made sure she pulled completely out of Vann’s head, and then opened the link with Grafe. She pulled her arm down then threw it up just as Grafe jumped off, and opening his wings, he flapped them gaining enough altitude to be above the heat of the fire, and to maneuver the black smoke clouds.

She never really answered his question, but instead rolled her eyes and said, “I wouldn’t worry about me, but lead the way, I’m right behind you. By the way, I still don’t know your name.” She didn’t really pose it as a question, but she did give him an interested look, like she was waiting for him to answer. As he ran she kept just about a foot behind him. This was enough to be able to look at his face as she ran, which she did easily, and still look up through the black smoke in the sky and see Grafe above them.

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Dragons' Cove

An island (that is more of a continent) that is completely cut off from the world it is placed in. If the foreigners are anything to go by, it may be the only innately magical part of the world, feeding out to other areas. It has a delicate balance, and its nature changes depending on the actions of its inhabitants.

This makes it either perfectly pleasant or bitterly brutal to live on, depending on your era. Explore its history with caution, but take time to stop and appreciate it as well.